SRAM Visit

Big Ed ('Taco' Ed from now on, thanks Brian) and Brian Bos from SRAM were in town last week. Ed spends a lot of time traveling to various dealers to have intelligent conversations about their Force and Rival stuff. We had an appointment set up for last Wednesday in Chevy Chase to meet with some of our inventory staff.

I called Ed to see if they were in town on Tuesday and offered to have them come over to the house for dinner. Susan was in Denver for work and I had just gotten back from Conyers. Ed and Brian were up for it so they came over around 7pm. I called Jonathan from Family Bikes to see if he wanted to come over and bask in the glow that is Taco Ed.

Ed and Jonathan headed to our local Chinese place while Brian drank beer and I put the kids down for bed.

We hung out talking shop about SRAM road stuff positioning, answering questions about whowhatwherewhenwhy for our customers.

RockShox has a new PopLoc-ish control called PushLoc for the bar that integrates with Juicy brakes and X-series shifters. that's a bad picture of it above. I guess it's good that it's hard to see as it's pretty low-profile, which is nice. It mounts to the MatchMakers so you can run brake, shifter and PopLoc control on one bar clamp. That's nice for rise-bar guys looking for more room on the bar.

On the left is Ed and Brian along with some of the remnants from our meal. Bottom right is Jonathan with something SRAM-related in the foreground. He's running Force on his road bike so I don't think he took much convincing. See, he even looks interested, but maybe that was the beers... Hard to tell...

I Hear It's Good For Wood Floors...

So I says to Emma, 'The next time Jeremy is ice-skating around the kitchen on a plastic bag covered in yogurt will you let me know?"

She smiles at me and says 'Sure dad' and goes back to eating her yogurt.

Ahhh, parenthood...

Helmet Cam from Conyers

24 Hours of Conyers Report

What a great race. What a good venue. Find me a cloud in that picture. That was Sunday morning.

Picture this: it's Friday morning and I'm driving to Kent's house. Got it in your head? Great. I drive a nice car, eh?

Anyway, I rolled up and the boys had the Suburban packed up and ready to go. We throw my limited amount of stuff in the back on top of everything, exchanged a few pleasantries, hit the WC and we were off for 630-ish miles of fun. Kent, Jonathan, Steve and I were on our way to the 1996 Olympic mountain bike course for 24 hours of fun.

The drive down was long but not so bad. We had a lot to talk about and Steve, Jonathan, Kent and I are not wallflowers. A little politics, a little bike, a little music, a 12" Subway spicy I-talian around 1... It was a long drive, to be sure, but the only unpleasantness was the sitting.

On the right we have Steve shaking hands with Laird before he sent everyone off for the run. This pretty-much shows the last place in time we thought we could still win. Next on the left is a thoughtful Jonathan 'Mr Freeze' Wheaton (who is always cold, by the way). Chris Willis before his morning lap, then Kent at the racer's meeting, me eating pancakes, some worked-over bikes, Kent doing the RFID Ants-In-The-Pants Dance and Steve chillin' out on Sunday afternoon at Casa de City Bikes - Conyers annex.

We rolled into Scenic Conyers, GA, and quickly found the horse park. It's a solid two miles away from grocery stores, restaurants and other services. That's not so bad considering how we packed, which is to say we needed to pick up some basics.

After unpacking the gear and setting up the tents, we went on a quick pre-ride of one end of the course. It was a dumbbell with one end pretty rocky and steep and the other end left to the unknown. We wanted to keep the start interesting...

We hit the great American institution that is 'Outback Steakhouse.' We ate like crazy and pretty-much all felt sick after stuffing down our desserts. Ouch.

We hung out Friday night but as the chill set in, we hit the sack after a long day of traveling. During the trip, we established that Steve would start, Kent was next then either Jonathan or I would go. We had time to figure it out and it would turn out that we pretty-much used all the time we had to make the decision: I was third, Wheaton would be the anchor.

Saturday is a bit of a blur. At some point, we started racing. Did Kent make pancakes? I seem to remember eating pancakes. I heard the name 'Chris Willis' being called and I ran over to the starting area as the riders were lining up and I saw our former inside guy at Jamis with a Free Flite jersey on. Yup. It was him. I'm glad we got to catch up. It was Dan from Free Flite who handed me my first beer after my race was over.

So, Steve decided to run the LeMans start. Actually, he really WANTED to run and we all had no problems with that. He came out of the gate strong, made up some time on the unknown (to us) part of the course and came by our site a minute down on our rivals, the Wrecking Crew from Athens. That was as close as we would get for the next 23 hours and 40 minutes... They broke the course record not once but TWICE! Those boys need a few pro licenses dropped their way.

Looking at the times for the night laps, I can't believe that my first of my double was a 53:57. I stopped in the campsite mid-lap, got my camelbak, switched lights, dropped my vest, ditched my waterbottle, changes batteries... It should have been way longer than that. I remember feeling good on that lap but the stop must have cost me at LEAST 2 minutes. The second lap was slower, for sure. Interesting. This link is the detailed lap times for our team.

I laid down between laps. I tried to eat and Susan's magic burritos went down great that afternoon and early in the morning. I ate four of 'em. They were bite-sized compared to our normal burrito making which helped a lot. And all them beans in there helped me out in the morning, if you know what I'm saying! Got it? Beans? Helped me out? Out?

Sorry.

The course itself was fun and challenging. The first 20 minutes (3.5 miles?) was supertwisty with great turns, drops, ledges, rocks, etc but the emphasis was on flow, fo sho. Lots of two-wheel drifts over pine needles at pretty good speeds. Transitions were key and if you had the power, you were ripping up the slow stuff to keep it moving. After you transition past the campsites, you hit a road crossing then up two slabs of granite to the next road crossing and a descent. You rode up/down a few times including one pretty-damn steep granite climb that led to a sweet downhill on granite to tight right-hand traverse into the trees and right into some 18" wide singletrack in the trees. It flowed real nice.

In the trees, it was nice and narrow with lots of great turns and little drops and technical root sections. There wasn't too much of anything to really slow you down. It was just a matter of trying to hold the speed and crunch up the short, steep stuff. There was one steep dirt climb with a hectic root/rock combo grunt at the top followed by some great narrow bermed trail with drops and some roots. There was a nice rock launcher as the trail turned semi-uphill for a technical root/rock section that led into more granite slickrock stuff, road crossing, granite to dirt to granite to dirt to granite to dirt to road crossing to finish area.

The back of the course would really mess with you. The rocks held in heat so they radiated at night so AFTER you warm up on the chilly side of the course, the rocks baked you. You would hit the open granite stuff that was all exposed then SHOOT down into the woods and shade under the trees. The transition time for your eyes would cause me to hesitate just a bit, enough to tug at the brake levers but not before I could control myself and keep my fingers from squeezing hard enough to slow me down.

We had a few issues during our transitions (two flats while I was sleeping? WTF?) but nothing major. We turned some pretty good laps and beat everyone out there but the other Expert Team. So it goes. They were cool guys and we had a beer with 'em at the end. They are coming up for Big Bear so we invited them to come to the DC area and ride (so we can kill them).

I managed to not get off the bike once (not sure why that's good if you ain't fast) and cleaned everything on every lap. It wasn't super-hard to do that, but it was important to me. I could have ridden harder through the course and just walked the steep stuff and probably had faster lap times, but this is MOUNTAIN BIKE racing, not RACING racing so staying on the bike was part of MY race. And I won that race.

It's a great race and it's worth doing. Laird pulled together another great event with a great course. After everyone left on Sunday, we even had the camping and hot showers all to ourselves. We hiked up to one of the granite rock faces and watched the sun go down. It was nice. Thanks to Dr Bill for handing out the good vibes and solid lap times. Big ups.

By the way, that pic on the right is what Kent looks like when he can't find his RFID card after his last lap. It was too funny. He even yelled at me while I stood there laughing. He pretty-much had his pants down two seconds after this shot. I'm almost done gouging out my own eyes...

We had a great time. The stumpy came through like a champ as usual. I continue to be amazed by those damn tires but the 1.9 let me down on some of the rock stuff, causing the unknown flats. I'm not surprised as this stuff was causing problems for people all day. I can't really complain.

I forgot to mention that I have some good helmet cam stuff as well. I'll try to get that posted on YouTube as we have some small clips. We gave Kent the cam lap as he had the last lap... Look for that asap. I'll try it now...

GA Pics

Kent says he bought this in Thailand a few months ago. Hard to say how this would have gone down in the South OUTSIDE of a bike race...

More to come later.

Good thing he's fast on the bike so nobody can catch him...

Ouchie in GA

Spanked. Crushed. Whooped. Outclassed, outgunned, outpaced... Woof.

We got second over all at 24 Hours of Conyers on the rad 1996 Olympic mountain bike course with 30 laps. Too bad we lost to another expert team by THREE LAPS!

Damn. We never got close...

Details here. More details tomorrow night. Sleepytime...

Early Intro 08 Specialized Bikes

Langsters in city-based paint schemes (why no DC 'No Taxation Without Representation' model?), new TT bikes that are HOT, a HotWalk for my son, 2 Rockhopper 29'ers under $1k... exciting stuff in the middle of the season.

I'm going to actually call Bob and suggest that they look at making a DC-based model. Everyone should know what is going on with the statehood push. I'm not sure how much people out in the world actually know that the good people of Washington, DC, don't get a vote in Congress. Talk about a rad bike. We could sell those suckers hand over fist! Here's hoping. The red and white with DC flag would be pretty hot looking, I think...

On the right, we have the sock Langster, the Langster Boston, Langster London and Langster Chicago. Below that is the new TT bike. Horizontal drops, center-pull front brake, vertical seat mast with removable seat clamp that provides 40mm of fore-aft adjustment, a second seatpost with 35mm of setback, team paint schemes, full carbon, prices down below $3k, fully super aero design with a frontal area less than one inch throughout the ENTIRE BIKE, new chainrings (good thing), SRAM TT carbon group and Red components, new Tri-specific saddle with two different NOSE widths. I almost wish I rode a TT or two during the year. Oh, and I wish I could afford it! The bike with Zipp 404 wheels, fully dialed is close to $8k. There's a good chance that that price will change but not much.

The Langsters will be priced just $50 over the stock pricing. What you can't see is the colored chains and paint details.

On the left, we have the Langster Seattle (with plastic fenders with wood-grain treatment), Langster NY (cabby paint scheme, 16" wide bars and 'rider carries less than $20 cash' decal on the drive-side chainstay) and the two Rockhopper 29'ers. The Rockhopper Comp Disc 29'er and the Rockhopper Disc 29'er.

All the Langsters are aluminum frame with steel fork so it's just the parts that are switched up. When you put these together with the new Tricross Single (below), you've got a solid onespeed lineup for the boys and girls.

Oh, the Langster Chicago has a decal that looks like there's a sticker over top of the 'L' and it spells 'Gangster.' Pretty funny stuff.

The HotWalk is a teaching bike for the little ones. Instead of training wheels, you get a bike that the kids learn balance on, as opposed to pedaling. Emma is still training-wheel-dependent and I should have gotten something like this for her. We won't make the same mistake with Jeremy. We'll see how Emma takes to this as well. She'll probably want to play with it as well.

I wish I had some high-res pics to show y'all, but all I have is the pics from the .pdf Specialized sent out. The good news is that these are not renderings, but actual pics of actual bikes.

These bikes are real, they are on the water already and your local Spec'd shop will see them in the next month or so (if they are smart and order them). Check out the pics, go ask your local bike shop to get you one or two and hold on for the full 08 roll-out in mid-July. Rumor has it that there's a 29'er Stumpjumper in testing right now with an enduro sl-style frame. Maybe I've seen it, maybe I haven't... Also, maybe the stump fsr bikes are going from 120 to 130 next year (like my 06 carbon stump fsr).

As soon as I saw these bikes, I realized that Specialized was trying to eat Bianchi's lunch. Bianchi hired Spec'd central-region guy about a year ago to be their national sales manager. This guy Mark has come out of the gate REALLY hard, pushing Bianchi to grow (without adequate systems support, if you ask me) and A LOT of people got pushed out of Bianchi dealerships because they (we) didn't want to play ball. I'll spare you the details, but I think that Spec'd has rolled out models to push Bianchi out of their super-established niche (29'ers, onespeed 'cross bikes, fixies). I've been given a few 'wink wink, nod nod' looks when I've mentioned this to a few people in the know so I might actually be on to something. I'd rather ride a Specialized anyway in case something goes wrong as I know that Specialized will take care of the product. I don't have that confidence about Bianchi. If you look around, you'll see a lot of new Bianchi dealers this year as they move into one shop after they got spit out of a different shop. More power to the shops who have gotten good service from Bianchi.

So, check out the bikes and let me know what you think. We'll be ordering next week fo sho. I'm most excited about the HotWalk for Jeremy. This is a RAD idea and I'm glad that they are pulling through on this model. I may be accused of being a Specialized nut, but it's stuff like this that makes me really like this company. I can rock their sub-30lb 6" travel bike and my boy can ride his rad little balance-teacher...

Thanks to Brandon, Andy, Bob, Jason, Luke, Deacon and the rest of the Specialized bike teams for pushing through some really rad stuff mid-year.

29'er News from Specialized

Got the info on the new Rockhopper Comp Disc 29'er and Rockhopper Disc 29'er (under $800, July). Also, Tricross Single (onespeed) which is all rad. How about a bunch of limited edition Langster track bikes for NY, Chi-town, Bahsten and London?

Pics tomorrow (or early for DT). Tricross Single.

Few days until Conyers!

Enduro SL Hits Patapsco

I finally got a chance to ride the new Enduro SL on my HOME TRAILS! It's one thing to spend a few days at Tahoe riding new bikes down the hill with a lift-assist, but it's quite another to rock your home break with new stuff.

Tom was interested in checking out the bike so I borrowed a bike from our local Spec'd rep (his bike) for some product testing. We hit Patapsco, of course.

I'll spare you the details, but the bike climbs as well as it descends. It's super efficient at climbing, to be sure. I was standing and climbing up some steep, rocky stuff and there was no problems. No wallowing in the suspension at all. On the down side of the trail, the bike tracks AMAZINGLY well, even when you hop a root and tap a tree next to you with the rear wheel in the air. (I won't tell Blaze about that).

One really cool thing that I noticed was the valving. Tom and I switched bikes and he dropped about 12-15 lbs of air pressure in the shock to ride it. I didn't mess with it because Blaze (bike's owner) is a full 25lbs lighter than I am so I thought it would be plush. After Tom rode it and gave it back to me, I barely noticed a difference in how the shock performed. I'm used to a shock being pretty sensitive to where it is sitting in the stroke and the spring-rate curve. On the Fox rear shocks that I'm used to, you can change how the bike handles based on the amount of air it in because you are changing where the piston is in it's travel. Maybe that's made up, but that's what I feel. Anyhow, the Spec'd shock on the Enduro SL didn't feel different at all. It felt a little more plush, sure, but the actual force to open it up and get it to move was the EXACT SAME as before. That to me means the valving is more independent of piston position than other stuff. It feels pretty similar to the bikes with the Twin Tube technology from Cane Creek. I'll have to tell Malcolm, he'll be pissed.

So, I love the bike and want one even more than I did before. If I can score a carbon one, I'll race that sucker all year. It floats, it slices, it dices, it Juliennes! This bike is a lot of fun and it's a keeper. 6" of travel below 30lbs is a Holy Grail if you ask me. If I can get the carbon Enduro SL down to around 27lbs, it's race-worthy fo sho. I'll keep dreaming about that while I'm riding my other rad bike all day long.

I also got to spend some time on the new The Captain tires. I'm not stoked about running a 2.0 tire on a 6" travel bike but it really makes you focus on the suspension. You can really feel these things squirm under load, especially during the slower-speed stuff when it's rocky or rooty. I found it pretty easy to break these tires free when the speeds turned up. They stuck to the rocks no problem and they never let me get too out of control. They were prototypes, but they are looking pretty good. If we can squeeze a 2.2 or 2.3 out of Specialized, things will be good. It's fast, it's round, it's fun. Welcome to 'The Captain.'

Next week is 24hrs of Conyers. It's the second Granny Gear race of the season and the second for the City Bikes Mtn Bike Team. We've got a fast team put together so I'm stoked. Me, Steve Viers, Kent Baake and Jonathan Wheaton. All faster than me and I'm no slouch these days. I do have every intention of returning to slouch-hood around Halloween, however. Mark that day on the calendar, please!

Jamis Training at City Bikes

This week we had Rob-e-dob from Jamis in Chevy Chase to hip the staff to the ins and outs of Jamis. The good news is that training is essential for staff to help customers to the best of their ability. The bad news is that I had to give him back the Diablo. Not only did the bike ride pretty damn well, but I liked the color. Oh well, somebody else gets to play with it for a while. Rob mentioned that he's selling his motoX bike so maybe that somebody is him!

In the background of that shot, just off of Rob's slice is Justin. He's a guy I hired a few years ago and he's back from doing good works in the world to work for us again. He's a great kid and good on the bike, with a wrench and with customers. We're lucky to have him, even if it is for just the Summer.

Here's a shot out my windshield of the sunset on my way to the shop to see Rob. It sure was pretty from rte 50 heading west...

In Adams Morgan, they had training on the Endura clothing that we carry as well as the new Serfas stuff. Now that the season is here and we are all staffed up, it's time to get 'em trained up on new product. As usual, there's always something new and interesting that we just can't resist buying and bringing into the shop.

Lotsa Lodi Pics

Here's pics from my boy DT's team (yes, that's DT in the hotpants).

This is a batch from Gary Ryan, photog extraordinaire. Buy something from him and help a brother out.

Good lookin' buncha riders out there. DT's got his mom's thighs... he'll just have to learn to live with that...

My Secret Is Burrito-Power!

Dammit.

Basso Admits Involvement in Spanish Doping Ring

MAY 08, 2007 -- ROME, Italy (BRAIN)--Italian pro cyclist Ivan Basso admitted involvement in the Spanish doping scandal and is cooperating with sports authorities, the Associated Press reported yesterday.

According to the report, Basso asked to talk to the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) anti-doping prosecutor and offered his full cooperation during the investigation.

Last May, Basso's name turned up on a list of cyclists who allegedly had contact with a Spanish doctor accused of running a blood-doping clinic in Madrid. Basso was subsequently charged with using or attempting to use a banned substance.

Basso's attorney said that the 29-year-old cyclist would not be implicating other riders in the investigation.

Basso cut ties with the Discovery Channel pro team last week.

12 Hours of Lodi Farms

First off, let's roll out a HUGE thanks to the folks at Team Bike Works for another great event!

Cliffhanger: how did we do?

Pics: campsite with tents and tarps, kids in the tent in a modern world on convenience, Jonathan and Tom's back before the race, Emma and Jeremy keeping me warm after my dawn lap, Jeremy getting ready for his bike race, Joel after his last lap, Tom HAMMERING up and out of the race course about to check in for the win, Team DCMTB/City Bikes after the 'podium,' Tom after his FAST last lap and Jonathan, me and Tom getting ready to go and sleep.

Susan, Emma, Jeremy and I set off down Rte 301 South towards the Great State of Virginia around 2:30pm. The car was stocked full of kids and gear for their first 12-hour race. They had been talking about camping all week. It was the first thing that Emma asked about EVERY morning and the last thing every evening.

We drove down in the rain and I turned into Mr. Bad Mood. I am not a big fan of the rain although this seems to be developing into a good omen for me. We rolled through scenic Waldorf (aka traffic hell hole) then down through La Plata into Virginia. We arrived on site in the rain, set up the tents in the rain and tried to entertain the kids in the rain. I called the boys to see where they were and Jonathan told me that he forgot his light. Damn.

Jonathan and Tom arrived an hour or so later. We got the ghetto EZ Up going (thanks Tom) and supplemented with a HUGE tarp staked up for additional rain shade (thanks Jonathan). We prepped our bikes, our food, our chairs and relaxed. Susan pulled through by making sure the kids didn't kill each other or themselves. I brought the laptop just in case and the kids were down with a movie (Barnyard) a little before 8.

Things got pretty chill around 9pm. The kids were down and asleep in the tent by around 8:30 (which is HUGE, all thanks to Susan). I was running and riding the first set of laps so I knew that 11pm was get-ready time. I layed down in the car (don't disturb the sleeping kids) and rested. We were camped IMMEDIATELY in front of the start/finish so I meditated through the racer's meeting. They announced 'No Le Mans Start' and I was bummed. Parade lap then race start. Whatever, good call probably. We were the only Expert team registered. We weren't really stoked about racing for first all by ourselves and I actually suggested that we move down to Sport class to have some competition. Hell, I even privately thought about just going home!

Joel popped up so say 'hello' as did Jonthan from Family Bikes here in Crofton. It's always good to see friendly faces. Big ups to Jonathan for coming down after work. In the rain. After working a full day on his feet. These guys were both racing on 3-person teams in singlespeed. They had a race between each other by the end of the race. I was worried that Joel would catch (and eat) Jonathan's team but they managed to hold Joel off.

I 'paraded' around for the first lap and started pretty close to the front. I passed a racer or five on my first lap. It was wet although I didn't get too muddy, which was odd. The tires were kicking up a lot but it wasn't wet enough for it to stick too much. I pulled a 56 minute first lap with A LOT of sliding, slipping and something similar for the second lap. I was done, I was stoked. I didn't sleep, I froze my ass off in the car. The rain had stopped, the clouds moved in and the temperature dropped into the high 40's. I shivered and was miserable. Don't wake the kids...

I rolled out of the car for my dawn lap, FREEZING my ass off. I got ready, shivering the whole time. It was bad. I got dressed and managed to get one brief thought into action: go stand next to the generator! I walked behind the start/finish and stood next to their generator to warm up. I stopped shivering and got my head straight. The generator was right next to the course so I saw Jonathan coming in just in time to jog over, tell the race officials our team number, receive the baton and jump on my bike. I was in a big hurry to warm up. Lodi always obliges.

The course is tight. It's hard to overstate that. There's not too much climbing but it's short, root-infested and steep. Whoever laid out that trail is a masochist. As soon as you get going, you turn uphill, over roots, 180 degrees. It's all about powering the climbs, accelerating hard and quickly and cornering. I mean CORNERING!

I've raced this event many times. I was the first guy to race solo singlespeed before there was an actual class for it (back in 2000, I got 5th in solo). I raced with Gwadzilla and Pooch in 2001 (Big Bald and Bossy), then again last year with Kent and DT (for second in Sport). I've never raced it wet (and I'm in the minority there). They've done a ton of work on the trails there, taking out a lot of the unsustainable stuff that has been there for a while and replacing it with narrow-ass singletrack. Did I mention that it was tight? These guys should get a medal for trouble-making trail!

I got back from my dawn lap and Jonathan and Tom were 'awake.' They briefed me on our current state: 37 minutes out of first place (only two teams but we thought we were the only Expert team), Jonathan had a bad first lap as his borrowed light died. He had to come back mid-lap, get another light then go back out. Bad Jonathan!

We were pretty bummed. We all re-committed to hammering out the laps, saving our overall ranking (still not sure what that was) and hoping for the best but also acknowledging that we were probably not going to make up that time.

After a few more laps, we were just having tons of fun. I felt much better after Susan nursed me back to health and the kids cheered me up. The sunshine helped a lot as well. We took down the tarp to dry out everything and the breeze started to pick up. Talk about a Godsend! SUNSHINE!

The course was firming up big time. Laps were getting faster, the traction was AMAZING. The canopy kept a lot of rain off the trail and the plants were thirsty. Only a few slick patches remained.

We calculated that I was probably going to have the last lap on the course, coming in just around noon. Turns out that the crack that Jonathan, Tom and I smoked REALLY helped out! I dunno what it was, but we started CRANKING! I went out around 11:03 and came back at 11:50! Tom sprinted out of the start/finish like a man possessed and Jonathan clued me in as to why: we were ONE MINUTE out of first!

I was freaking dumbfounded. ONE MINUTE! I was in total disbelief. I had every hope that Tom would take care of business. The other team had been in the lead since the first lap. We still aren't sure what happened to them but we know that Jonathan's light issue and a few delayed handoffs pushed us back quite a bit.

When Tom came STOMPING back into the start/finish for our last lap, he pulled a sub-50 minute lap and the other team hadn't come in yet! We had managed to scrap back to first in Expert! We celebrated with handshakes and sitting the Hell down! We were tired.

Talk about an emotional roller coaster. There were a ton of riders that didn't show up, I imagine it was weather-related, but the race was great. There was no standing water on the trails, the mud didn't stick to anything by my drivetrain (and bike) and the rain gave way to perfect sunny weather.

I've gotta tell ya, those WTB tires that I have been running for the last few years are NEVER coming off my bike! Sure they are a team sponsor, but I BOUGHT these tires! They are NOW called the ExiWolf but mine are so old that they say EpicWolf, the original name. (Points to whoever figures out what company had a problem with THAT name!). I ran the same setup from the Vail Lake race, 1.9 rear and 2.1 front. I can't believe how well they worked in those conditions. I never went down... not once.

Thanks to Susan for the dietary support and the kids for the emotional support. Thanks to Jonathan and Tom as well. Those guys kicked ass and I was just along for the ride! Times and results will be here later...

I forgot to mention that I got some of my second night lap on helmet cam. We'll see what it looks like but my hopes are low... I'll link it up later.

12 Hours of Lodi for 2007

Here we go... 13 hours until 12 hours of racing begins. I gots me a helmet cam, I'm gonna do the run with no light but with cam and ride the first two laps then hit the sack! I'm tired so it should be fun. Vaughn, Wheaton and me in Expert 3man. Here's hoping we don't embarrass ourselves. We should be under an hour per lap average. Methinks 13 fast laps will win it.

Emma, Jrock and Susan will be there and I can't let them down. Daddy's taking 'em camping! WOOHOO!

See y'all down there. Directions here. Come on down and drink some beer!

Greenbriar Race

We had a lot of City Bikes-DCMTB riders out last weekend including some pros. Lorena got a sweet pic in the local paper and online up that side of MD.

There are some race reports here (soon).

Joel got second place in clydesdale. Nice. Watch out, he could eat you. It looks like Camps is growing a beard. He's starting to go wild!